The abbreviated penultimate run, just seven episodes, has been averaging an astonishing 31 million viewers per episode once live, time-shifted, on-demand and streaming plays are tallied. That's up 34 percent from the previous record-shattering season in 2016. As for Sunday's finale, the last episode that will air for potentially 16 months, HBO logged another all-time high 16.5 million viewers with live tune-in and night-of streams.

At this point, an estimated 90 percent of HBO's U.S. subscribers watch Game of Thrones. And while the lack of any advertisers on the pay service takes the series out of the traditional "demo" conversation, it is now unquestionably both higher-rated and a bigger audience draw than AMC's The Walking Dead.

"It’s more like Bran is processing everything he’s seen, like, 'I’ve seen you there. That happened to you. I’m sorry for what happened to you.' Bran has lost that emotional connection. He just states what he sees in an almost autistic way, not really connecting with things but just saying how they are."